Paint Blending

[Ironman]

Are their any Professional auto body repairmen on this forum? The reason I ask is because this summer I did some body work the the passenger side quarter panel right under the tail light to repair a nasty crease, and I was wondering how one would go about blending the fresh paint with the old. I do not want to take this to a body shop for two reasons, the first is money, the second is that I want the experience and pride of knowing that I did it myself. thanks for any input.

[crusierdad76]

ok im not a paint guy but I have worked in a few body shops--the answer is to feather or blend it into the rest of the car----where the new paint ends you will need to go another foot or more to get it to blend in and not have any hard lines just remember when you are spraying it you want to go lightly,, after it is all painted sand it with some fine wet dry and buff it out--its not that hard but it will probably take time

[Ironman]

That's kinda what I figured, but as a noob in this area I thought it prudent to ask the advise of a veteran or two. I just took two pictures of the body work (which is still not done, I haven't given it the black mist/straight board treatment yet) and here they are. this kinda makes me wish I would have taken work in prograss pictures, but now I know for the other spots I want to fill. Fyi, the bumper was also damaged, so thats why it looks a little funky.

[crusierdad76]

Looks good from here, it just takes a lot of work to get it smooth and stright and a really good etch locking primer is a good thing as well

[Ironman]

Yeah, I wanted it to look professional, not like one of those hack jobs that rust out after a year, so I took my time, and did many layers instead of just globing it on and hoping for the best.

[Candyman]

Hey their Ironman,

For better, or worse, I will throw my 2 cents into the mix. Honestly, with that type of repair, the best thing would be to re-shoot the whole quarter rather that try to do a spot repair. Unless you are really good at getting the tints just right the color isn't going to be a match, and the only way to make it look reasonably uniform is to shoot the entire panal to help hide the slight color difference.

The reason why it is so hard to get a good match for the color is, as soon automotive paint is introduced to air, and atmospheric conditions, it begins to fade, and deteriorate to some degree which will alter its color from when it first rolled off the assembly line. Even if it is perfectly maintained, and detailed to perfection for the life of the vehicle, the color is still altered. In addition, most Factory Paints ( Especially the Chrysler Plant in Taluca Lace MX) are notorious for not having an exact color duplication process. A good example was the Dream Cruiser Series 2 Tangerine Pearl Paint. Some PT's have a bit more redish tint to the paint, and some have a more goldish tint which makes it even a bit more tricky to match exactly. Luckily Inferno Red is not as hard to get close on, but the tinting process is critical to doing a good job!

That is the biggest reason I always try to steer people away from doing their own Rock Chip Repairs, as many times the OEM paint is so far off that it winds up becoming a real headache.

As for your body work, it is hard to tell in pic's as always, but just keep blocking the heck out of it till its nice and smooth, and keep checking with your hand, and by pouring a bottle of water over it to visually see in the reflection if you see any imperfections. Remember to always use a sanding block no matter what to ensure that you keep things nice, and straight, and avoid leaving tiny indentations from your finger tips that happen when you try to sand by hand without a block.

SO, for what its worth, that's my take on paint.As most of the Guys on here, and around that know me would agree, when it comes to paint, I am about as critical as they come, which is why I try to avoid painting cars as much as I can get away with! Too bad I was'nt a bit closer to you, or I woul see about shooting it.

Anyways, if you still decide to do your own paint, please let me know if you need me to walk you through the process, and I would be happy to help out any way I can!

Take er easy!

Candman

[crusierdad76]

Good points candyman and not that it matters but I would tend to agree with what you said --- However I was thinking ironman was trying to save some cash,and make it look better than it was, and I think he pretty much is doing a good job , it is a small repair and if he gets the paint to lay good it should be Ok
To do a totally pro job Id say that you would have to do at least the rear quarter up to the door, but even then it might not totally match and it would cost a chunk of change.


candyman: I was thinking about doing a two tone paint scheme mine is a black PT, and I was thinking like a Silver top,hood and door tops do you think this would be over $1500 at a body shop????

[Candyman]

Hey their crusierdad76,

I agree with you on Ironman doing a good job! I just used to see a lot of people with the idea that you can just go down to the Paint Store, pick up some OEM Paint, shoot it, and get a perfect match. I really do wish it worked like that, but he sad reality I am afraid is that it is just a bit more complicated than that, so I wanted to bring that across. Luckily its not like he has a metallic, or Pearl, or something more complicated, or I would say to take it to someone for sure. On a Base Clear, I recon even if he wound up re-shooting the quarter, with a little guidance, and a makeshift booth in a garage or something, Ill bet he just might be able to pull off a semi decent job without a lot of trouble. I'm still more towards doing the whole panal rather than a spot repair, but either way I would be happy to see if I can lend a hand in explaining the process, and see where we wind up!

As for your 2 tone, it would be close, but I would say that you could probably get it done for around $1500.00. The biggest expense would be the paint, and clear to cover the entire top half of the car instead of just the bottom half like the Dream Cruiser 3 which would use a lot less material. With that said, the Silver over Black paint scheme is way cool though, and would look sweet for sure! Here is a pick of one of my favorite PT's with that 2 tone DC3 look!



Take er easy,

Candyman

[Ironman]

Thanks for your kind replies, as well as the much needed insight, I was thinking that it I lightly sanded an area as big as you mentioned to rough up the paint for better adhesion, then wen't to a pro. body shop and had them match the color for me I could give the repair area four thin coats, then lightly over mist the entire sanded area drawing back as i reached the edges so as to blend the paint colors better, this is my first time doing anything like this, and initially I was thinking of having it done, but I want to be able to say "hey look what I did" and (hopefully) have people not be able to see where the car was patched.

[CREWZIN]

If I can just throw my two cents in. I think Candyman was right in saying most paint places would want to do the quarter panel instead of just the one area as I just had a 2 inch gash and spider-webbing around the area on my rear bumper.

I took it to a place that I've used before for small jobs and they fixed the gash and resprayed the whole rear bumper for $125. The original PS2 paint code (after 8 years) would not have matched and the painter took out a sheet with about 10 shades of the same silver PS2 paint code and matched mine up perfectly.

I was very hesitant about having them do the whole bumper as I didn't want it to stand out in case the bumper didn't match exactly with the rest of the PT but that didn't happen and I was really pleased with the job and you can't beat the price.

The painters I'm talking about are a professional shop that goes around to the new car dealers and fix scratches and dents on the new cars when they arrive at the dealerships but also fix and paint some of the trade-ins that come into the dealer that they plan to sell in the used car lot. They can match any shade and I even had a large rock chip on my Vette fixed and that was a custom blended paint about 5 years old.

What I'm trying to get at is that the paint shop I used can be found all over the U.S., not necessarily the same business, and they do a great job and charge a small percentage of a regular shop.